Major meeting of FIUs in Korea progresses the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea, His Excellency Mr. Han Seung-soo opened the annual meeting of the Egmont Group of financial intelligence units.

The Egmont Group consists of 108 financial intelligence units (FIUs) from across the world.Financial intelligence units are responsible for following the money trail, to counter money laundering and terrorism financing.FIUs are an essential component of the international fight against money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and related crime.Their ability to transform data into financial intelligence is a key element in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service held a joint meeting on March 18 to take stock of domestic financial institutionsĄŻ Bear Stearns-related credit exposures and appraise the ongoing financial market developments at home and abroad. The meeting was chaired by FSC Vice Chairman Rhee Chang-Yong and concluded with an action plan to step up market monitoring.

DART to Be Upgraded to Give Investors Added Information on Registration Statement Filings and Noncompliance

An upgrade to the Data Analysis, Retrieval, and Transfer (DART)&#8212;the FSS online corporate disclosure filing system&#8212;is planned in order to give investors added information on registration statement filings and disclosure noncompliance. The upgrade is expected to go online some time in the second quarter this year.

The Financial Supervisory Service plans to take steps to strengthen the role of underwriters in public offerings and at the same time facilitate market discipline in the securities underwriting market. The FSS also plans to give a more balanced regulatory focus between periodic corporate filings and share issue-related filings.

Preliminary figures put domestic banksĄŻ combined net income for 2007 at KRW15.02 trillion, up KRW1.44 trillion from KRW13.57 trillion for 2006. Bank net income for 2007 was boosted by after-tax gains totaling KRW3.4 trillion from the sale of shares in LG Card (KRW3 trillion), SK Networks (KRW200 billion), and others that domestic banks held from debt-equity swaps in previous years. Excluding these one-time gains, bank net income for 2007 drops to KRW11.65 trillion, compared with KRW12.04 trillion for 2006.

The FSC/FSS plans to adopt regulatory changes that will raise provisioning for certain classes of assets of credit card companies and incorporate a higher proportion of asset-backed securities in the computation of adjusted capital ratio. The new fine-tuning measures are intended to level uneven provisioning rules currently in place for banks and credit card companies and to ensure adequate provisioning as a cushion against losses.

Bank BIS capital ratios at end-September, 2007, averaged 12.71%, down modestly from 12.75% at end-2006. A 14.02% (KRW130.3 trillion) increase in risk-weighted assets led by loan growth of small- and medium-sized companies more than offset the 13.6% (KRW16.1 trillion) increase in bank capital and lowered the overall BIS ratio for the period.

2. Basel II Implementation in 2008

Implementation of Basel II is set to begin in 2008 as scheduled for domestic banks. Of the 18 domestic banks, Kookmin has received regulatory approval for the use of internal-ratings-based (IRB) approach; the 17 others are to begin with the standardized approach. Both the Industrial Bank of Korea and the Korea Development Bank are also working on regulatory approval for the use of IRB approach in 2009.

The Financial Supervisory Commission adopted on December 21 amendments to Regulation on Supervision of Securities Business that are specifically aimed at facilitating exchange and off-exchange securities trading and bond investment by foreign investors. The newly amended regulations, which will take effect January 1, 2008, are part of the ongoing effort by the FSC/FSS to continually improve KoreaĄŻs investment and regulatory climate for foreign investors. In addition to the newly amended regulations, the FSC/FSS plans to significantly simplify trading reporting requirements and further relax trading restrictions for foreign investors in the near future. Below is a summary of the newly amended regulations.